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Today's Opinions

When a police officer, sheriff deputy, firefighter or emergency medical services worker dies in the line of duty, the entire community -- indeed, the entire state of Kentucky -- comes together to mourn the loss.

By MICHAEL JINKINS
I wonder in this moment how many stars are slipping into oblivion. How many are being born.
The turn, turn, turning of the universe goes on all around us all the time, and among and within us too. To everything there is a season in this ceaseless sea of changes, waves rising from the ocean only to fall back again.
My thoughts have turned increasingly toward wisdom literature over the past year, as losses and griefs have accumulated.

As a Senator, my job requires that I spend many hours in Washington, but Kentucky is my home and I make it a priority to be in the state when the Senate is not in session. Over the last two weeks, the Senate was not in session so I decided to again travel throughout the Commonwealth as I often do. Not only is this a great way to engage with Kentuckians from every corner of the state, but it’s also a great way to ensure I can continue my work most effectively as Kentucky’s voice in the Senate.

The landmark 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement has brought hundreds of millions of dollars to the Commonwealth over the past two decades. I keep up with how that money is spent—in agriculture, health care and early childhood education, as appropriated—and thought you’d enjoy an update, too.
I was particularly interested to learn that a Kentucky-based company looking to process the fiber of around 750 acres of hemp and the jute-like plant kenaf has been approved for $381,500 in state tobacco funds to expand its processing facility.

By MICHAEL JINKINS
Special to The Trimble Banner
I suppose you’d have to be at least as old as I am to remember the television program, “This is Your Life,” in which a person was presented with several surprise guests, people from the person’s past who had been important in their lives, often decades earlier. For some reason the phrase “this is your life” came back to me recently as I was sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Atlanta waiting for the final session of the conference I was attending.

By ANDY BESHEAR
Kentucky Attorney General
“The single greatest threat to Kentucky is our drug epidemic.
The crisis is killing our family and friends – it is the main source of crime in our communities and it is preventing job and economic growth. This is the crisis of our times, and we must find new ways to stop drug dealers and help those addicted recover.
With the rapid rise of stronger, more powerful drugs like heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil, the opioid epidemic is killing more and more Kentuckians.

The U.S. population is growing faster than a blade of bluegrass in spring. But a larger population will not necessarily mean a younger population, for either our country or the Bluegrass State.
The less-than-robust birth rate nationally and here in Kentucky over the past decade means that the largest population growth -- at least over the next few decades -- will be among the baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964), which means most population growth will be among older and the oldest Americans, demographers say.

Long nights, intense debate, and media attention from across the globe wrapped up what started as a quiet final week of the 2017 Session of the Kentucky General Assembly. Minutes before the Senate gaveled out for good, Governor Matt Bevin called this session the most productive in history. It was truly an honor to work alongside the governor with the new House Majority to pass many great initiatives for our commonwealth.